The Weed H. & Ena De Gazon Salmon and Byron S. & Winifred Sealy Standard Educational Opportunities Fund

wedding photo of Kenneth and Valerie Standard

Provides funding to the New York State Bar Association for law-related educational programs that benefit New York State’s youth, such as Youth Law Day Programs conducted by its Committee on Minorities in the Profession.

Funding may also be used to support the Kenneth G. Standard Diversity Internship Program created by the Corporate Counsel Section of the New York State Bar Association and will provide a stipend to minority law students who accept internships with not-for-profit organizations that are unable to compensate them.  (Photo shown is of Valerie S. and Kenneth G. Standard on their Wedding Day with their parents, left to right, Winifred Sealy Standard, Ena De Gazon Salmon, Byron S. Standard and Weed H. Salmon.)

This fund was established by Valerie S. and Kenneth G. Standard in honor of their late parents, Weed H. and Ena De Gazon Salmon, and Byron S. and Winifred Sealy Standard. Their parents instilled in their children an appetite for education and the life opportunities that higher education, in particular, created.  Their parents emigrated to America with limited education, but they valued, supported and encouraged Valerie, Kenneth, and their siblings in their efforts to achieve higher education. For this reason, the Fund will provide grant awards for education of disadvantaged students, who at this time are predominantly minority.

Kenneth and Valerie Standard  have stated the following, “Educational and professional achievements of the minority population lag far behind the general population, with unfortunate consequences for them, and equally important, for society in general. The legal profession, in particular, lags. We have a paucity of minority lawyers. The Fund will support efforts to reduce this achievement gap.